Diamond Eyes, or the One Where We Learn Some Tragic Backstory (Vitya)
Recommended listening: "Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)", Shinedown There’s one time that Cassandra took in a beggar off the street, who was very clearly dying. She provided him with a warm bed, and magic to ease his passing from a disease she had no way to cure. As he breathes his last breath, she covers him with a sheet as her sister, all black and white and big red glasses, comes in. “I can heal him, you know,” she says gently, still standing in the doorway. Cassandra shakes her head, returning to the counter to prepare some herbs for a simple ceremony that will allow him to pass into the next world with all the care she can provide. “You’re too late, Evelynn. He’s already passed,” she replies. Eve lets out a small laugh, and moves towards the table. “Oh, you haven’t heard?” she says, as the shadowy tendrils of necromantic magic begin to manifest around her hands and the body of the beggar, who begins to twitch under the blanket. Cass whips around, eyes wide as she processes what’s happening. “No! Not in my house!” she yells, pushing her sister away from the table, breaking Eve’s concentration and causing the spell to dissipate, “I will not allow you to befoul this house of healing with your dark magic!” Eve continues to laugh, taking in the utterly distraught look on Cass’s face. “Cass, dear, once the soul has departed, the body is, how do you say, ‘free real estate’. The ground has enough bodies in it, let those who may have been less useful in life be more useful in death.” “That is callous-” “It’s practical-” “It’s wrong!” Now it was Eve’s turn to look offended. “That’s what you think of me?” “It’s what I’ve always thought of you! The magic you do, it violates the laws of nature!” “And yours doesn’t? If the gods leave a man to die, he should die, shouldn’t he? Your healing violates the order of things!” “You’re jealous that I can actually help people!” Cass moved into Eve’s personal space now, staring through the red glasses at her mismatched eyes. Eve refused to back down. “You’re jealous that I have more power than you!” “You’re just angry that you couldn’t save Mom!” This last outburst came in unison, with both of them looking horrified that the other would dare cross that line. Sylvia Drinre Athan died several years ago, when Evelynn and Damian were 13, and Cassandra was only 10. It wasn’t anything they could have done, it was a swift and terrible illness, but that didn’t mean that each member of the family felt without blame. Their father, a powerful witch in his own right, felt utterly powerless as he watched his wife die. Damian coped by burying his nose in books, and relying on Eve to remember that life was still worth living. He’d only recently regained the trickster glint in his eye, but in the meantime he’d become a rather formidable spellcaster. Cassandra decided to pursue medicine, hoping that she could help prevent others from experiencing similar ordeals. And Evelynn decided on a more direct path: how to circumvent death altogether. The air between them was still, and full of tension. There was nothing either of them could say. So they didn’t. Eve put the hood in her jacket back up, straightened her glasses, and left. The door slammed shut, filling the silence. This wasn’t what their mother would want, but she wasn’t here, was she?